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“Mozambique has no interest whatsoever in hosting criminals,” Baloi said.

He said Mozambique would comply with international law and had sent its justice minister to Kigali for talks.

Some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the 100-day massacre.

Last month, Bosco Mutangana, the head of Rwanda’s unit tracking genocide suspects said hundreds of “fugitives” were living in southern Africa despite many diplomatic attempts to have them extradited to face prosecution.

He said in comparison to how Europe has dealt with requests from Rwandan prosecutors, African countries were dragging their feet.

Baloi told the BBC’s Portuguese Service that Mozambique had to abide by United nations (UN) refugee laws.

Those most responsible for the genocide are being tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in Arusha, Tanzania.

Several other countries – including Canada, Finland and France – have tried genocide suspects rather than extradite them to Rwanda where they fear they may not get a fair hearing.

Mutangana said Rwanda’s chief prosecutor had visited Mozambique and Zambia twice, in 2007 and 2009, and were still waiting for an appointment from the authorities in Malawi.

“They have the dossier of the names, where they’re living, but we notice they don’t want to do anything about it,” he told the BBC’s Great Lakes Service.

He said in comparison to how Europe has dealt with requests from Rwandan prosecutors, African countries were dragging their feet.

He said after handing over the files, Southern African officials had been invited to Rwanda but they had failed to come and carry out their own investigations into the allegations.